20 Must-Read Blogs for Online Entrepreneurs

One of the most important parts of being an online entrepreneur is maintaining an intellectual edge. Those who work and start businesses on the web are always learning, always watching other businesses, and always looking for new sources of information.

The goal of this list is to provide that — 20 useful, thought-provoking, and potentially lucrative sources of news and ideas. Each of these blogs are run by leading individuals and companies, and together they can help form a cornerstone of learning in your daily schedule.

Not all of these blogs are about entrepreneurship, or even business, but all of them are well-written and definitely worth looking at.

Here’s the list in no specific order:

1. OnStartups Written primarily by Dharmesh Shah, OnStartups is a blog about entrepreneurs and new companies, mostly in the online space. There’s enough good information here to fuel at least a few new ideas from every read.

2. How to Change the World This is a blog written by former Apple evangelist and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki. Having launched multiple online ventures personally, and funded even more than that through his VC firm, he’s definitely worth listening to.

3. VentureBeat Possibly skewed a bit towards the offline world, VentureBeat is still worth reading for online entrepreneurs. All of their stuff is well written and well thought out.

4. Mashable One of the bigger blogs, and entirely focused on Social Media, Mashable is often passed over by serious entrepreneurs. That being said, this blog often has breaking business news and information that can be incredibly useful for anyone dealing with social media (which should be every online entrepreneur).

5. yCombinator’s Hacker News yCombinator is one of a handful of companies dedicated solely to providing seed money for online ventures. This is their blog. (Note: it’s highly tech oriented)

6. Scobleizer Scobleizer is one of the earliest tech blogs written by the often-controversial Robert Scoble. It’s a blog filled with opinion and advice that are frequently contrary to other information sources. For that reason, it’s a good read.

7. ReadWriteWeb This is another blog that feverishly covers tech news and startups. It’s got a lot of good information and frequently covers the latest developments in the tech world.

8. ValleyWag ValleyWag is a blog run by Gawker media that follows the ups and downs of silicon valley. For tech enbtrepreneurs, this blog is definitely a must-read.

9. A VC Accurately self-described as “Musings of a VC in NYC”, this blog is one of the best resources for anyone looking to glean some wisdom from an experienced venture capitalist.

10. The Eco Capitalist Written by Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, this is a blog about breaking from tradition and launching a business based around environmentally friendly ideals.

11. Signal vs. Noise SVN is a blog by the popular company 37signals. As one of the biggest and most prominent online startups in recent years, they have lot of useful information to share with other entrepreneurs.

12. Seth Godin’s Blog Written by the 10-time-bestselling author Seth Godin, this is a blog about marketing, markets, and how people think. It’s also a blog that just about every entrepreneur should take a look at.

13. Tim Berry’s Blog This is a blog written by the guy behind the popular “Business Plan Pro” software. There’s much more opinion and advice here than news, but it’s from a very knowledgeable source.

14. Work Happy A collection of online tools and resources for entrepreneurs, Work Happy is definitely a valuable blog to viist. It’s not updated very often, but the content is worth the visit anyhow.

15. Information Arbitrage Information Arbitrage is a site written by a Wall Street investor turned web entrepreneur. It’s very financially technical, and provides a lot of business insight.

16. The Netsetter Written by the CEO of the Envato Network, Collis Ta’eed, this blog provides an unprecedented look into the thoughts of a very successful online entrepreneur.

17. Startup Company Lawyer This is a blog that’s actually about the legal aspects of running a new company. This information is in short supply, and can definitely provide a boost to potential entrepreneurs.

18. Get Elastic Get Elastic is a blog about e-commerce and how to get website visitors to buy things. If your business plan involves this type of conversion, then this blog is a must-read.

19. Lessons Learned Written by venture capitalist Eric Ries, this is a blog that is definitely a must-read. Topics vary considerable, and every post is chocked full of good info.

20. GrokDotCom This is a blog by the conversion and optimization company FutureNow, Inc. It centers on usability, conversion, and overall optimization of a variety of different websites.

That’s it for our list — but what do you think? Did we miss any critical resources? Did you read some of these blogs and decide they weren’t worth it?

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